Messy Minutes Assessment Edition Special Proficiency Scale Series Episode 6: If You Build It, They Will Grow

TRANSCRIPT:

Opening: Welcome back to Messy Minutes: Assessment Edition! I’m your host, Shannon Schinkel, from the Embrace the Messy Podcast. Over the past five episodes, we’ve journeyed through the art and science of building meaningful criteria. We’ve explored backward design, unpacked standards using Bloom’s taxonomy, created task-neutral criteria, refined them with quality language, added “This means that…” to ensure clarity for students and teachers alike, and made them first person so students see themselves in the assessment.

Now, in our final episode of this series, we’re looking at what comes next. We’ll explore how your criteria can drive meaningful learning experiences while empowering students to take ownership of their progress…because “If You Build It, They Will Grow!” ________________________________________ Here’s the Issue: We have beautiful criteria. Now what? Criteria aren’t just for you to assess students—they’re for teaching, self-assessment, portfolios, communication and more!  But it begins with this criteria. In speaking with educators’ things like retakes and redos, self-assessment, portfolio building and supporting students with disabilities have been difficult to manage. But guess what? The criteria you’ve built can now support you with all of these things! ________________________________________ Let’s Break It Down 1. Make Criteria the Heart of Teaching: Criteria are not just an endpoint—they form the foundation for planning, instruction, and assessment. o Design intentional tasks: Learning tasks should align directly with the skills and understandings outlined in the criteria. This ensures that students engage in activities that build toward proficiency rather than just completing unrelated tasks. o Let go or refabricate old tasks: Move away from activities that no longer serve the criteria. Redesign tasks to focus on developing skills and understandings that align with the criteria, ensuring every task has purpose and relevance. o Repurpose old rubrics and checklists: While these tools may no longer be central to assessment, they can support students in organizing their work and meeting task-specific expectations. However, they should not override the broader purpose of teaching to the criteria. o Emphasize skill-building over task completion: Shift the focus from completing assignments to developing and refining skills over time. 2. Feedback That Moves Learning Forward: Clear criteria simplify feedback, making it specific, actionable, and focused on growth. o Align feedback with criteria: Because the criteria are clear, strengths and areas for improvement often emerge directly from the criteria itself. This clarity ensures that feedback is targeted, meaningful, and easy for students to understand. o Celebrate progress and identify next steps: Feedback should both affirm accomplishments and highlight specific areas for continued growth, helping students focus on actionable steps to improve. o Incorporate feedback into learning: Feedback should not be a one-time event but an ongoing process that supports students as they refine their understanding and skills over time. 3. Support Students with Disabilities and Diverse Needs: Criteria create clear grade-level expectations while providing opportunities to meet students where they are by designing “windows” that guide them toward the criteria. o Illuminate and celebrate every level: Meeting students “where they are” does not mean pushing them to the next level immediately. Instead, it means creating pathways that highlight and celebrate their current level of achievement. o Design windows to the criteria: Windows are more than scaffolding; they provide accessible steps leading up to the criteria, allowing students to see the connections between where they are and where they can go. o Tailor next steps purposefully: Supporting students’ progress could mean helping a pre-level 1 student build foundational skills to reach level 1, assist